New brigade commander seeks unity for peace, development

By: Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – Colonel Noel Baluyan, newly-installed commander of the Army’s 302nd Infantry Brigade (IBde) in Negros Oriental, stressed the importance of unity among the stakeholders, local government units (LGUs), police, the Army, and the community to address security and development issues particularly in Region 7.

Baluyan replaced Brigadier General Ignacio Madriaga, who was moved to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) headquarters after his one year and seven months stint at the 302nd IBde.

The turnover of command was led by Major General Dinoh Dolina, commander of 3rd Infantry Division (ID) held at the brigade’s headquarters in Camp Leon Kilat in Tanjay City last August 27.

Before his assumption, Baluyan was a former deputy brigade commander, and also a former commander of Task Group-CBS that has the operational area covering the provinces of Cebu, Bohol, and Siquijor.

Baluyan, in his message, said he will aggressively engage all stakeholders, the police, the LGUs, other government agencies, and the community in the pursuit of their shared goal.

Given the complexity of the security environment in our area of responsibility, we must not lose sight of the fact that the military solution is not enough to solve this multi-faceted insurgency problem, he added.

“I call upon each and every member of the team to join me in achieving our vision and accomplishing the mission,” he said, as he believed that convergence of effort is the key in simultaneously addressing issues concerning security and development.

“We must have unity of efforts for a unified action,” the new brigade commander stressed.

Meanwhile, Madriaga expressed his gratitude to all the stakeholders, the local chief executives, police, his troops, and the higher headquarters for helping him achieve the mission of the brigade.

For his part, Dolina congratulated and commended Madriaga for a job well done, as he challenged Baluyan to continue and maintain the operational tempo as started by his predecessor, if not, strive more and bring the brigade to greater heights.